GPC series closes with “The Just So Stories”

The Grand Prairie Center’s 2012-13 performance series will come to an end with two showings of “The Just So Stories” the first week of May.

A school performance will be held Thursday, May 2, while a public performance is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday, May 4.Grand Prairie Center Director Amanda Holsted said she chose “The Just So Stories” as the final performance because it was also the “final children’s theatrical production by the Arkansas Arts Center.

“We kicked off the series with the family-oriented Golden Dragon Acrobats. I also wanted to end the series with a show that the whole family could attend,” she said.

Rudyard Kipling’s “The Just So Stories” is considered among Kipling’s best-known works. It is being performed by the Children’s Theatre of the Arkansas Arts Center.

According to the center, Kipling wrote down a collection of entertaining stories in 1902 that he’d told his own children as fanciful explanations for all those “how come” questions that always come to children’s minds.

“The collection was published in a book titled ‘Just So Stories.’ This play brings those stories to life in a way that will delight children of all ages — even those with gray hair,” the center’s description of the performance noted.

So, what questions does it answer? According to the center, it answers various phenomena like “how the camel got his hump” and “how the leopard got his spots.”

“The show will entertain audience members of all ages,” Holsted said. “We have invited Pre-school and up to the school performances.”Each performance lasts approximately one hour and is followed by a discussion with the performers. It is the last of three works in the Children’s Theatre on Tour 2012-13 productions sponsored by Target.

The Grand Prairie Center’s showings of “The Just So Stories” are co-sponsored by AT&T and Entergy Arkansas.

“They were gracious enough to sponsor the show so that the school children could attend at no charge,” Holsted said.

Tickets for Saturday’s public showing are $9 for children and $13 for adults, and may be purchased by calling (870) 673-4201 ext. 1895, visiting www.pccua.edu/gpc or stopping by the center’s box office from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.